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Why three clusters?

Our bees swarmed today for the first time. When they did they didn't all condense on one branch like I thought they would. Instead they separated into three clusters. Two of the clusters were very close together and on a tree near the ground. The third one was up high at the top of a tree. We recovered all of the clusters, but why would they split up instead of staying together? Is this behavior normal?

Re: Why three clusters?

Sometimes they get real excited about swarming and issue multiple swarms, each one with a virgin queen or one may have the old original queen. Sometimes they'll swarm out big ball of bees with multiple queens and then seperate into individual clumps or into individual hives when they get to their destination.

"A good day is when no one shows up and you don't have to go anywhere." - Burt Shavitz (Burt's Buzz)